Parshas Vayishlach

Find Serenity

Our father Yaakov lives in a very violent and dangerous world. Escaping
from Lavan and his treacheries, he falls into a wrestling match with an
angel and an actual encounter with Eisav, who apparently is determined to
kill him. Extricating himself from these difficulties, bruised, wounded
and slightly poorer materially for the events, Yaakov then suffers the
tragedy of his daughter Dina being kidnapped and assaulted and the
resultant war that his sons, led by Shimon and Levi, conduct against the
leaders and citizens of Shechem.

Yaakov is appalled by the violence perpetrated by his sons but is
apparently powerless to limit it. Even on his deathbed he will reprimand
Shimon and Levi for their violent nature and behavior. This parsha
therefore turns into a litany of tragedies and untoward events that befall
Yaakov. I have always felt that when Yaakov told the Pharaoh that “my
years have been few and bad” he was referring to this week’s parsha and
its events.

It certainly seems that any assessment of Yaakov’s life, based on the
events of this week’s parsha, must certainly be a bleak one, full of shade
with very little light shining through. Yet in the assessment of Jewish
history and rabbinic tradition, Yaakov’s life is seen as a triumph and
success. He is the one who takes a family and builds it into a nation. He
takes thirteen disparate children, each one with a distinct personality
and differing goals and welds them into the people of Israel. He imbues
them with the belief of monotheism, good purpose and probative behavior,
in spite of their living in a world of paganism and dissolute behavior.

Yaakov is strengthened in his belief by the promises made to him by God
many years earlier in his life, before he embarked on his fateful journey
to Aram. He never questioned the validity of God’s support of him, of his
eventual salvation and survival, no matter how difficult the
circumstances. In this he is the paradigm of all future Jewish existence
that mimics his life and circumstances.

Jewish life and events can be characterized as always being one of “out of
the fire into the frying pan.” There never seems to be a letup, a respite
from the challenges and dangers that constantly arise. Yet we Jews are
constantly aware of God’s promise that He will never completely forsake us
and that within us is the ability of being an eternal and constantly
renewed people.

Being a loyal and Torah abiding Jew can create within each of us a sense
of serenity and harmony. However, as a nation and people, such a pleasant
passage through the waters of human history is unlikely. It is natural for
us to wish that this would somehow be otherwise. But the events of the
life of Yaakov stare us in the face. They chart our course in life as
well. Faith in God and the will to persevere under all circumstances
define our goals and hopes in this difficult world in which we live. For,
after all, we are all the children of Yaakov.